On the Tiles - Local Edition: What happens next in Gore District Council - Ben Bell drama?

Gore District Council Mayor Ben Bell and chief executive Stephen Parry. Photo / Otago Daily Times

The biggest local council drama of the year has come to a surprising end with Gore District Council mayor Ben Bell surviving a vote of no-confidence raised by his councillors.

In fact, in Tuesday’s extraordinary meeting of council, none of the councillors at the table even voted to advance the motion to hold a vote - despite seven of the district’s 10 councillors last week asking Bell to resign.

It was a sudden end to a drama that dates back to last year’s local elections, where tensions between the newly-elected Bell and his chief executive Stephen Parry reportedly started to fray shortly after Bell’s narrow election victory.

Speaking to On the Tiles - Local Edition host Georgina Campbell, NZ Herald reporter Kurt Bayer said that the “extraordinary extraordinary meeting” had a packed public gallery, more media in attendance than usual, and protesters out front in support of Bell, all waiting for the motion to advance to the vote of no confidence.

“When it came to the big motion, there was silence. Nobody wanted to move the motion, and it died a death right there. That resulted in some big cheers from the public gallery and applause, and a pretty relieved-looking Mayor Bell.”

Bayer said that the move wasn’t a total surprise, as the motion was sold as being a symbolic move to try and change the situation and ease the tensions around the council table.

The intense national attention on the council and the town likely led to a change of heart as well.

“The attention was plainly unwarranted by the town. Yesterday and in the days leading up to it, they’ve talked a lot about ‘the Gore Way’. It’s a pretty conservative farming region, mainland types, so they just want to crack on with things and not be in the national headlights where this is played out. It goes against all of that.

“I would say it’s definitely played into things, whether it made them back down from a coup. I think there was a lot of pressure behind the scenes to sort it out.”

One motion to write to Local Government New Zealand and seek support was supported unanimously, but Bayer said that despite the no-confidence motion failing, there are still big questions about what will change with the central frayed relationship.

“One key figure in all of this, the CEO Parry, wasn’t at Tuesday’s meeting,” Bayer said. “That’s the real key one, I think. Parry, who’s been there 20-plus years running that council, he had a six-term mayor, Tracy Hicks, who he had been working with. And then he got this young out-of-towner, 24-year-old, coming in.

“So they have admitted themselves to a very strained relationship, so how they can work together will remain to be seen.”

Listen to the full episode for more about the Gore District Council drama.

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